Bird numbers plunge in U.S. and Canada with people to blame

reuters ^

[Java4Jay]

From grasslands to seashores to forests and backyards, birds are disappearing at an alarming rate in the United States and Canada, with a 29% population drop since 1970 and a net loss of about 2.9 billion birds, scientists said on Thursday.

[Hot Tabasco]

I've got a Monster Buck I've been watching all season.

Wow, he is a beauty.........I couldn't shoot him but I have no problem with you doing it.

Hopefully you get the chance before someone else does.........

[Jamestown1630]

I was speaking of taking one for a pet. To make a pet out of a wild bird, you have to get it early, from the nest, so that it imprints on you. I don’t think it’s legal anywhere in the US to take a hatchling crow.

In the US there are no regulations on three birds: Starlings, House (or English) Sparrows, and Pigeons (Rock Dove) - they are all introduced species. I’ve reared all of these, and once helped to re-hab and release an adult crow. (That crow was a glorious bird, but he HATED me.)

[lightman]

Some sort of bird has also been dining on our tomatoes...

Could also be stinkbugs.

[lightman]

You have a fighting chance to take him.

Bucks don’t get big by being dumb....he’s survived many a rifle season by laying low and moving only after nightfall.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. No doubt he’s King of the Forest for a reason!

Unfortunately I can see (by the vehicle parked down my lane) that one of the Bow Hunters is here until nightfall.

If he gets my buck he’ll either high-tail it out of here and never speak a word, or come up to the house to brag; my friends can go either way. ;)

[lightman]

I saw the “bachelor group” last week for the first time in months...six of them, all at least six points and two definitely at least eight...

Not as much food for them this season because the nearest farmer planted hemp instead of corn.

[Steve Van Doorn]

[piasa]

That’s a lot of rats cats eat... rats’ favorite food, even before tasty bird seeds, is eggs and baby birds...

[piasa]

Not seeing them listed here...at least not as far as Canadians are concerned in the Canuck version of the 1917 act. The countries involved can have different birds on the list which is rather weird.

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/oiseaux-migrateurs-migratory-bird/EnglishbyEnglishName_20190311.pdf

[piasa]

Ungh...squirrels. I was lucky, not very many squirrels in our neighborhood back then. Lots of birds and lots of cats.. maybe cats back then were low skilled hunters compared to todays’.

Actually I think people underestimate how many eggs and nestlings are being eaten by animals that are not being controlled by trapping or hunting any more, such as possum, coon, birds of prey, big birds like jays and crows, and rodents, with squirrels being prime culprits. Squirrels were widely hunted in the 70s and 80s for fun and food, not so much now. Feeding birds really helped expand the population of squirrels, coons, possums and rats too.

[Chickensoup]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pennington-Squirrel-Resistant-Wild-Bird-Seed-Feeder-Holds-3-Pounds/20854660

Worlds best bird feeder. I have six. They are great. each holds a lot of seed. I use Meaties but they work well with black oil too.

[Viking2002]

My buddy has a house on 1 1/2 acres of woods. We'd throw on some hunting camo, and climb the hillside with .22 rifles. If the squirrels wouldn't play, we'd sit with to our backs to a fallen tree and pretend we were an anti-aircraft crew gunning for German crows. LOL You're right, I don't see or hear a lot about hunting tree rats as a source of dinner much anymore, just taking them out as a nuisance. They're good cooked the right way. One year my buddy wanted to throw a Super Bowl party (he was never a football fan, but if it was a chance to throw a kegger, he'd never pass up the opportunity). He had two pounds of tree rat quarters frozen, so we put them in a pressure cooker for an hour to tenderize them, then let them simmer in teriyaki BBQ sauce in the slow cooker for about three more hours. They tasted like a mild beef, nothing gamey, and not a bit of stringiness or toughness at all. Tender. Those little leg bones were like toothpicks, though. The whole while, he had a pot of venison chili cooking low and slow on the stove. He put out a buffet with all of that, steamed shrimp, pretzels and Beer Nuts, then one of the guys brought a full keg of Miller and party cups. Needless to say, between the game, the dartboard and foosball table, a mini target range across the creek bed and lots of .22 ammo, and all the food and beer, it was a good indoor tailgate party by any standard.

What were we talking about, again? LOL!

[Jamestown1630]

I think the treaty - at least the US agreement to it - was amended:

https://www.fws.gov/birds/management/managed-species/migratory-bird-treaty-act-protected-species.php

When I took care of the crow, I had to be working under a licensed rehabber. I know that many years ago in the US there was a small movement to petition the government to allow crows as pets. I don’t think that went anywhere, but more recently there appears to have been an online petition for California. (However, you can buy and keep foreign corvid species which never migrate to the US from breeders):

https://wild-about-wildlife.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-can-i-get-pet-crow-or-raven.html

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/crows-as-pets/

[Dead Corpse]

Disassemble all of the “sustainable” bird choppers.

I'm going with this one...

[Theophilus]

Amen. Kill feral cats.

[House Atreides]

“I’ve got a Monster Buck I’ve been watching all season. He’s a BEAST...”
***********************************************
He’s magnificent. Hopefully he will have sired many offspring before he is harvested.

[Paul R.]

I think my mystery birds may be Carolina Wrens. They have multiple calls, and one of those, as played on some, but not all audio clips of Carolina Wrens’ calls, sounds fairly close to what I’m hearing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpOHUbiT0po

(2:27)

(A different call by the same bird precedes 2:27.)

That series of vids is another quite a good “calls” resource! I just stumbled onto it... :-)

Interestingly, on the clips containing the “video-video-video” call (or close), it’s never the primary call, or as “clear” (sounds like “video” repeated) as what I hear here. Here, I often ONLY hear “video-video-video” coming from the location of the call, and it is very clear. I joked to my wife once that it is almost as if the bird knows many(!) moons ago I used to do some work as a “VJ”, and is making a request. ;-)

[MomwithHope]

Neat thanks for the post. That is a nice link too. That does sound like the one. We only have the house wrens around here. That is a link to a neat old record too, thanks.

[READINABLUESTATE]

“I was speaking of taking one for a pet. To make a pet out of a wild bird, you have to get it early, from the nest, so that it imprints on you. I don’t think it’s legal anywhere in the US to take a hatchling crow.

In the US there are no regulations on three birds: Starlings, House (or English) Sparrows, and Pigeons (Rock Dove) - they are all introduced species. I’ve reared all of these, and once helped to re-hab and release an adult crow. (That crow was a glorious bird, but he HATED me.)”

I was only addressing the taking of crows.
I have cockatieles as pets. Some hand raised some not.
One of the not hand raised (rescue bird) hates me as well. LOL!

[Alas Babylon!]

No, it’s not at all scientific. But it does let people know that a certain species was at a given location.

It does count all those THAT ARE SEEN, not that exist.

I’m just innocently providing a link if others want to participate.